Earthquake aid enters Syria's opposition-run areas through new route

An aid convoy has passed through a newly reopened border crossing into opposition-run northwestern Syria, where help has been slow to arrive since last week's earthquake, which killed more than 41,000 people in both Türkiye and Syria.

A caravan of 11 United Nations trucks entered Syria through the reopened Bab al Salam border point on Tuesday, after Bashar al Assad's regime agreed to let the world body use the crossing for aid.

Before the earthquake struck, almost all the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in opposition-controlled areas of northwest Syria was being delivered through just one crossing from Türkiye — Bab al Hawa.

Ankara had offered to the international community that it can open two border crossings in the southern Kilis province for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria, Türkiye's Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said on Monday.

The trucks were loaded with essential humanitarian assistance, including shelter materials, mattresses, blankets and carpets, Paul Dillon, a spokesperson for the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), told the AFP news agency.

Activists and local emergency teams have decried the UN's slow response to the quake in the areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid delivered to regime-controlled airports.

The United States, which refuses ties with Damascus, called on both the regime and the opposition to work to allow in aid.

"Everyone should put aside their agendas and affiliations in service of one pursuit and one pursuit only, and that's addressing the humanitarian emergency — the humanitarian nightmare — that's unfolding in parts of northwest Syria," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington.

The UN also launched an appeal for $397 million to cover three months of "life-saving relief" for victims in Syria and said it was close to a similar plan for Türkiye.

"Millions of people across the region are struggling for survival, homeless and in freezing temperatures," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

READ MORE: Syrian regime agrees to open two new crossings for UN quake aid

'Miracle' survivors

Rare survivors were pulled from the debris nine days after powerful quakes struck the region, but the focus has switched from rescue to providing food and shelter to millions in need.

A handful of survivors have continued to be pulled from the rubble, including four on Tuesday, defying belief almost 200 hours after the disaster.

However, keeping them alive after being buried for so long is a battle.

"It's a miracle to find a patient still alive under the rubble," doctor Yilmaz Aydin told AFP.

"From now on, the survivors are likely to be in a more critical condition. The majority of them will need life-saving treatment," said Aydin.

One survivor was a 25-year-old Syrian woman Abir, who spent 180 hours trapped under the rubble.

"Her heart stopped two times but we managed to bring her back," said doctor Nihat Mujdat Hokenek.

In Türkiye, the death toll stands at 35,418, while the number of deaths in Syria reached 5,814, according to the latest figures from the UN and the Syrian regime's Syrian Arab News Agency, bringing the total death toll to over 41,232.

Syria has been in the grip of civil war for the past 12 years. The quakes have piled more misery on the Syrians.

READ MORE: Türkiye offers to open two border gates with Syria for quake aid delivery